Once known for peacekeeping, Canada is becoming a militarized nation whose apostles—-the New Warriors-—are fighting to shift public opinion. New Warrior zealots seek to transform postwar Canada’s central myth-symbols. Peaceable kingdom. Just society. Multicultural tolerance. Reasoned public debate. Their replacements? A warrior nation. Author …

May Day: A Graphic History of Protest traces the development of International Workers’ Day, May 1st, against the ever-changing economic and political backdrop in Canada. Recognizing the importance of work and the historical struggles of workers to improve their lives, with a particular focus on the struggles of May 1st, the comic includes the rea …

The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) was a collective effort involving hundreds of people from all over the world, most of them never having met in person. Inspired by the Bertrand Russell Tribunal of the Vietnam War era, WTI aimed to record not only the crimes against the Iraqi people, but also crimes committed against humanity. With contributions fro …

Wars fought over the past quarter century have been a spectacular failure. The overwhelming majority end in military stalemate and are settled at the negotiating table, with the grievances that led to the war still unresolved. In Disarming Conflict famed peace activist Ernie Regehr shows that force cannot simply override or transcend the social, po …

Unsettling Canada is built on a unique collaboration between two First Nations leaders, Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ron Derrickson.

Both men have served as chiefs of their bands in the B.C. interior and both have gone on to establish important national and international reputations. But the differences between them are in many ways even more in …

Historians, veterans, museums, and public education campaigns have all documented and commemorated the experience of Canadians in times of war. But Canada also has a long, rich, and important historical tradition of resistance to both war and militarization. This collection brings together the work of sixteen scholars on the history of war resistan …

As the Egyptian revolution gained momentum in the winter of 2011, a common refrain echoed across Cairo’s Tahrir Square: “The wall of fear came down!” Mass protests against fear and authoritarianism have also rumbled across the aggrieved streets and plazas of Tunis, Athens, Madrid, New York City, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Delhi, a …

Following the lives of the three Greenpeace ships with the name “Rainbow Warrior”, long-serving Greenpeace activist, Maite Mompo tells the inside stories of life on board and recounts some of the ships’ most exciting adventures and actions.

Rainbow Warriors provides a narrative of real life on board, a history of these famous vessels, and a h …

The world’s addiction to economic growth continues with barely any recognition that this is a problem. Indeed, in a Western world currently dominated by austerity measures and ducking in and out of recession, growth is seen even by progressives as the only possible solution for our economic and social woes. This No-Nonsense Guide looks deeper int …

“What we must see,” Martin Luther King once insisted, “is that a riot is the language of the unheard.” In this new era of global protest and popular revolt, Languages of the Unheard draws on King’s insight to address a timely and controversial topic: the ethics and politics of militant resistance.

Using vivid examples from the history of m …

In On Western Terrorism Noam Chomsky, world-renowned dissident intellectual, discusses Western power and propaganda with filmmaker and investigative journalist Andre Vltchek. The discussion weaves historical narrative with the two men’s personal experiences, which have led them to a life of activism.

Beginning with the New York newsstand where Cho …

In the 1960s, for at least a brief moment, Montreal became what seemed an unlikely centre of Black Power and the Caribbean left. In October 1968 the Congress of Black Writers at McGill University brought together well-known Black thinkers and activists from Canada, the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean—people like C.L.R. James, Stokely Car …

For twenty-two years politicians and businessmen pushed for the Adams Mine landfill as a solution to Ontario’s garbage disposal crisis. This plan to dump millions of tonnes of waste into the fractured pits of the Adams Mine prompted five separate civil resistance campaigns by a rural region of 35,000 in Northern Ontario. Unlikely Radicals traces …

In 1804 Haiti became the world’s first independent Black republic following a slave revolution. Two hundred years later, ravaged by colonialism and corrupt elites, it was placed under a UN military occupation.

Haiti’s New Dictatorship is the history of the past seven years, from the 2004 coup against Aristide to the devastating 2010 earthquake, …

Since the first edition of the No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples was published in 2003, much has changed. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous rights have become an increasingly important subject in international law, with Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo …

A wide-ranging exploration of why inequality persists and what can be done about it, the No-Nonsense Guide to Equality discusses the positive effects that equality can have, using examples and case studies from across the globe. It examines the lessons of history and covers race, gender and ethnicity, age, and wealth. Danny Dorling considers, reali …

Committing Theatre offers the first full-length historical study of political intervention theatre and theatrical spectatorship in English Canada. Building on twenty years of research and engagement in the field, this book’s historical narrative frames close-up examples of how theatre artists have intervened in and engaged with political struggl …

Who was the first black queen? How much do you know about China’s history? Most people’s knowledge of world history is hazy and incomplete at best. This updated No-Nonsense Guide gives a full picture, revealing the hidden histories and communities left out of conventional textbooks — from the civilizations of Africa, Asia and Latin America to …

Spying, once solely the domain of the KGB, CIA, CSIS, and MI5, has become part of everyday life. Governments routinely trawl our emails, closed-circuit security cameras follow us in malls, office buildings, and on street corners, while databases of our DNA and other personal details become larger all the time.

This No-Nonsense Guide provides a well- …

In Reasoning Otherwise, author Ian McKay returns to the concepts and methods of “reconnaissance” first outlined in Rebels, Reds, Radicals to examine the people and events that led to the rise of the left in Canada from 1890 to 1920. Reasoning Otherwise highlights how a new way of looking at the world based on theories of evolution transformed s …

Gold Dust on His Shirt is an evocative telling of the experience of a Scandinavian immigrant family of hard-rock miners at the turn of the century and up to World War II. Based on fascinating historical research, these are tales of arriving in ‘Amerika,’ blasting the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, work in the mines, and domestic life and labour …

Terrorism and counter-terrorism have become key points in political talk and government policy. This No-Nonsense Guide has been revised and updated to take account of the major changes in global terrorism over the past seven years.

Jonathan Barker presents a highly accessible history of terrorism that looks at examples from the Middle East and else …

In the first book to distill the entire history of the United Nations into one accessible volume, Maggie Black explains how this complex organization works. In doing so, she explores its successes, failings, and limitations.

This No-Nonsense Guide addresses the U.N.?s creation and early history, how it is structured, and whether it can effectively f …

“Overseas aid” and “international development” are catch-all terms that cover a multitude of activities — and abuses. Building dams in India, planting treesin Burkina Faso, and rescuing street children in Brazil are images of development with which we can all identify. But what few people realize is that the terms “aid” and “develop …

The world is changing and especially so for lesbians, gays, and people who are bisexual and transgendered. In some countries, hard-won battles for equality are bearing fruit in non-discrimination legislation. In others, being gay incurs the death penalty.

This No-Nonsense Guide gives an overview of sexual diversity and reveals the hidden histories o …

Here is a clear, wide-ranging introduction to the worldwide state of human health. Starting with a brief history of modern medical progress, Shereen Usdin then untangles the knot created by poverty and globalization to show that where you live, how wealthy you are, and your gender all have a bearing on the diseases you may encounter in your lifetim …

Deindustrialization is not simply an economic process; it is also a social and cultural phenomenon. The rusting detritus of our industrial past-the wrecked halls of factories, abandoned machinery too large to remove, and now-useless infrastructures-has for decades been a part of the North American landscape. Through a unique blend of oral history, …

An in-depth study of European immigrants to Canada during the Cold War, Gatekeepers explores the interactions among these immigrants and the “gatekeepers”–mostly middle-class individuals and institutions whose definitions of citizenship significantly shaped the immigrant experience. Iacovetta’s deft discussion examines how dominant bourgeoi …

The protection of animal rights is more than a modern, western phenomenon. In fact, there is a long history of concern for animals around the world, and it is this concern that underlies today’s animal rights movement.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Animal Rights explains the key issues, charts the growth of the movement, looks at welfare and protectio …

Iconoclast David F. Noble traces the evolution and eclipse of the biblical mythology of the Promised Land, the foundational story of Western Culture. Part impassioned manifesto, part masterful survey of opposed philosophical and economic schools, Beyond the Promised Land brings into focus the twisted template of the Western imagination and its fait …

Science is still the great intellectual adventure, but now it is also seen as an instrument of profit, power, and privilege. Wrongly used, it might yet make the 21st century our last.To make sense of all this, we need to let go of old ideas and assumptions.

In the No-Nonsense Guide to Science, Jerome Ravetz introduces the “post-normal” way of th …

“Nothing is going to go wrong.” -Mike Harris, 2001

Privatization of power soon became one of the biggest political disasters in Ontario history. Hydro reveals a train wreck that was decades in the making. First there was blind faith in the nuclear option, steeped in ecological arrogance. Then came the promise of marketplace magic.

Jamie Swift and …

An Unauthorized Biography of the World explores the practice of engaged oral history: the difficult, sometimes dangerous work of recovering fragments of human story that have gone missing from the official versions.

Michael Riordon has thirty years’ experience as a writer and broadcaster in the field. Readers will encounter a gallery of brave, pa …

Even before September 11, 2001, Muslims were often framed by Western media and many non-Muslims as enemies of “freedom” and “progress.” Like other religions, Islam is not without its ongoing tensions and struggles. However, like other religions, there is a depth and richness to the Islamic faith that is too often overlooked because of stere …

Michael Lynch, the central figure of this book, was a long-time gay activist and a dynamic force in organizing an early response to the AIDS epidemic. Lynch’s prescient articles in The Body Politic spoke to the gay communities of Toronto, New York, and San Francisco. His organizing efforts meant change and hope. AIDS Activist is a crisp and passi …

Rarely a week goes by when juvenile delinquency or the Young Offenders Act are not discussed in the dominant media. Are we witnessing a moral panic over youth crime or a spate of “child-blaming” driven by the politics of law and order? Sangster traces the history of young women and crime and in so doing punctures dozens of myths surrounding the …

In this concise, critical study of civil society, Jamie Swift sketches the history of the concept from its roots in the eighteenth century, to the present. Swift looks at its practical application in specific cases, such as Canada’s Victorian Order of Nurses, and with community-based groups in South Asia (India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Ba …

Historian Michael Dawson digs deep into the written and pictorial record to reveal how the RCMP, since its inception, has constructed and zealously guarded its public image. Drawing on previously untapped sources, Dawson documents how consultants and entrepreneurs deliberately transformed and modernized the traditional symbolism of the Mountie. His …

Based on in-depth oral interviews with local residents, and rich archival sources, We Lived A Life and Then Some relates the common person’s struggle to overcome harsh working conditions and government neglect. The unique culture of the hardrock mining town of Cobalt is exposed through the eyes of retired miners, young welfare mothers, and grade- …

In Brink of Reality, Peter Steven examines the convergence of video-art and social-issue documentary, from the 1940s to the present. No other book has explored contemporary Canadian documentary so thoroughly, or provided as broad a view of the state of the art in the 1990s.

Maryka Omatsu’s family was among those whose lives were shattered and properties taken by the Canadian government’s harsh and racist actions against Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Bittersweet Passage is a moving account of the Japanese Canadian struggle to come to terms with a painful history. It is also the story of the author …

Ten activists, scholars, and writers analyze contemporary development issues linking Canada and the Third World, and provide an in-depth critique of Canada’s role in perpetuating poverty in the nations of the South. Widely adopted as a course text at the college and university level.

Swift traces the history of forest abuse and misuse, and looks at the much-touted contemporary commitment to forest renewal. He makes a convincing case for a new way of treating the forest, revealing its vast potential.